Bottega Veneta / Spring 2012 RTW

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“Urban ethnic” is the term Tomas Maier is using for his summer collection. “Open your eyes to what’s around you. Sometimes you don’t need to go on vacation to be inspired.” Well. Often are the times when such fashiony-tags as “urban ethnic” turn out to be nothing more than a skimpy excuse for a bit of predictable jungley print and executive safari-tailoring. But Maier’s no lazy reworker of stock clichés. Really, when he looks around him it’s almost as an anthropologist or sociologist applying himself to the needs, desires, and behaviors of the tribe of modern women. As we all know, these mentalities are complex and varied and very often not even touched on by designers who are more carried away by wanting to fit into a trend than fitting a whole way of life.

But at Bottega Veneta, Maier comes at it from the opposite perspective: Instead of complying with today’s quick-fire, one-message standard method of showing, he goes in deep, takes his time, and develops the kind of intelligent variety absent from so many shows. Often, the true nature of the clothes outwits being captured by mere photography or even described by standard fashion vocabulary. His indefinable collages of strips of artily appliquéd chiffon running over offhand looking dresses; his A-line gabardine skirt with knife-edge inserts of plastic-bound leather pleating; his all-over-dappled green cardigan printed to merge with a matching plissé-tiered dress—all of these can only be understood if you hold them or put them on. Which is exactly what Maier wants—the discoveries are saved for those who buy.

Still, despite Maier’s emphasis on unique and mysterious surfaces, it’s the comprehensive grip on filling slots in the wardrobe which is impressive. He did graphic renditions of the summer shirt dress he’s made a Bottega signature. This time it’s tailored with patches of leather in a way that hinted at motocross styling. He had great knits, either a cardigan-jacket hybrid or an abstracted vaguely Mexican-blanket-patterned cotton. And suddenly, a hip, grown-up trio of elongated blazers, worn with baggy denims and large, fringed jersey scarves.

By the end, editors were nearly suffering from whiplash, so busy was each woman whipping her head from side-to-side trying to follow the clothes she most identified with. Within them, there will be those who picked out a flapper dress in an African-patterned collage; the ones who were casting their minds forward to the Met Gala, with the layered chiffon dresses trailing; as well as those thinking, Oh! Time to pull out my jeans again! Very few women will ultimately wear these clothes. But the thought process behind them is a rare example of a fashion designer embracing so many different women’s points of view.